1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc apparatus, and in particular, it relates to an optical disc apparatus, storing a disc tray within a thin-type housing with using a flexible cable therein, as well as, a flexible cable to be applied within the same.
2. Prior Arts
In recent years, the optical disc apparatuses are widely used to be a recording medium of being recordable a large amount of information thereon, and for example, a CD-ROM and/or a DVD, etc., (hereinafter, being called by only an “optical disc”) are widely used to be an external recording medium for a personal computer.
On the other hand, with a notebook-type or -size personal computer, into which such the optical disc apparatus is installed, accompanying with the demands for small-sizing and thin-sizing thereof, attempts are made upon the thin-sizing of the optical disc apparatus itself, and for that reason, a space becomes narrow, which is defined between a disc tray mounting an optical disc thereon and a housing supporting that disc tray to be slidingly movable.
For that reason, as is already known in the following Patent Document 1, a disc tray for mounting an optical disc thereon is provided to be slidingly movable between an eject position, for mounting the optical disc thereon, and a reproducing position, for reading out the information memorized on the disc, on the other hand. Thus, on the disc tray building up the optical disc apparatus, there are provided a turntable for rotating the optical disc mounted thereon, and an optical pickup portion for optically detecting the information recording on the disc, etc., and between that tray and the housing is/are disposed or wired a flexible cable(s) mentioned above. This flexible cable is disposed or wired under the condition of being curved or bent depending a relationship between the tray and the housing. Further, this flexible cable electrically connects between a substrate or circuit board, which is provided on the tray, and a substrate or circuit board, which is provided within the housing, and it moves the curved or bent portion thereof within an inside of the housing following the sliding movement of the disc tray, when the tray moves.
However, as was mentioned above, since the inside of the housing becomes narrow, accompanying with the thin-sizing of the optical disc apparatus, and therefore the flexible cable(s) cannot bend loosely or gently; therefore, there are cases where the curved portion of the flexible cable is in contact with an interior surface of the housing when the tray is stored into the housing, and a portion of the flexible cable losing the way of or cut off from escape is projected or pushed out from a gap defined between the tray and the housing, due to resistance upon contact with the interior surface of the housing. Further, when the tray keeps on moving into the housing, there will be caused a problem that the projected portion of the flexible cable is held between a rear-end portion of the tray and a front-end portion of the housing. In this manner, in particular, within such the thin-type optical disc apparatus, in case when the flexible cable thereof of held between them, there is a possibility that the tray cannot be stored within the housing, completely, and also that the flexible cable itself is damaged.
Then, according to the Patent Document 1 mentioned above, there is provided a disc drive apparatus, wherein reinforcement is made by pasting a thin plate of film made of a resin or the like on the flexible cable, thereby enabling smooth storage of the flexible cable when it is stored into the tray, as well as, preventing the flexible cable from projecting from the gap between the disc tray and the housing when it is stored into the housing.
Also, as other technologies related thereto, for example, in the following Patent Documents 2 through 4, there is already known that, although relating to a flexible circuit board (i.e., a flexible cable), but a reinforcing plate or film is provided for preventing a conductor patterns thereon from being broken or snapped, due to bending stress caused when inserting or removing a terminal formed at a tip thereof into/from a connector, as well as, provision of various kinds of shapes on the terminal portions thereof, such as, an opening hole or a wave-form, etc., for preventing the stress applying onto a base film thereof from being concentrated in the vicinity of the rear end portion of that reinforcing plate or film.
Patent Documents 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. Hei 11-144403 (1999);
Patent Documents 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. Hei 6-152077 (1994);
Patent Documents 3: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. Hei 8-88448 (1996); and
Patent Documents 4: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-124573 (2000).